Have learned very expensive mobile phone lesson!! : (

Smowball | 15:10 Mon 03rd Dec 2012 | Family & Relationships

26 Answers

Teen smow always had PAYG with his phone, but his provider was offering a fantastic deal on contract - only £10.50 per month, which worked out even cheaper than we were paying on PAYG. So signed up for the contract, and told him to check his text and calling minutes balance daily, as he was NOT to go over. So he has been, and has been showning me - all fine.

So you can imagine my horror when I checked my bank statement and saw that in they have taken £91.20 last month!!

1.It turns out that delivery reports for txts do NOT count in his unlimited texts!! They are not classed as a text so for every single text he has sent, he has received a delivery report, and I have been charged for it.

2. He leant the phone to a friend who wanted to get a number and they dialled 118118, at £1.05 per minute. But because they kept losing the signal they kept re-dialling it, and even it if was only connected for 2 seconds I have been charged £1.05 each time. This friend tried to call 118118 over FORTY times...............(

That'll teach me to look into things better won't it!

Fostering

Need to send some flowers : (

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MarkRae

You can bet that everything they have done and every charge they have levied will have been mentioned somewhere in the new contract, and they will simply claim "caveat emptor"...

jno

don't lend to a friend is good advice...

Smowball

Question Author

Son has been read the riot act but to be fair to him I would never have guessed that a delivery report didnt count as a text. And have never been told that either. Got him to immediately disable that on the phone.

hc4361

I have my contract phone to the lowest possible limit - £50 with my provider, Virgin. I was aghast when the original limit was £500.

See if your provider will do something similar.

Smowball

Question Author

I didnt know you could set a limit on it? He has 300 minutes a unlimited(!?) txts a month and actually never goes over the minutes. Its the numbers that arent covered by that which I didnt consider ie 118118 etc

hc4361

The credit limit, smow. When he is running up a bill he is using the credit limit the provider has allowed. Set it as low as possible

Smowball

Question Author

Will definitely give them a call to do that - thanks!

VHG

Well it could have bee nworse

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-20567165

sunny-dave

Which provider charges for delivery reports ???

ChuckFickens

3 do, at 1p a time (so you'd have to work your thumbs hard to make a big difference to the bill)

ChuckFickens

So do Orange it would seem (also at 1p a report)

Mick-Talbot

This friend tried to call 118118 over FORTY times...............(

Well give him his due.....he has patience in abundance.

ChuckFickens

"patience in abundance"

And a certain degree of slowness in learning....

Make a call... loose signal
Shall we move to a better signal area, or try again...
Let's try again....
Oh didn't work....
Let's try again....
Oh didn't work

Repeat for 40 times!

IggyB

The provider will probably operate call barring service that will block the mobile from calling any of these sorts of numbers, give them a bell or check their website for advise for parents

jomifl

Smowball, you have my sympathy.My wife has a contract for her mobile phone. Imagine our surprise when after only a few calls to a friend who was on holiday in France we got hit with a big bill (forget how much). It turns out that 'roaming' calls aren't included in the monthly subscription so you have to pay for them separately even if you haven't made any other calls. These phone 'pirates' are worse than Sandyroe's 'cran of eels' :-)